The energetic pulse between Russia and west has triggered volatility in the hydrocarbon markets. the Gas and oil prices have seen wide swings this week, prompted by Russia’s introduction of a ruble-only payment system for Russian gas and the announcement of a “historic” injection of crude oil from the reserves of United States that seeks to mitigate the impact of energy prices on its economy. In this regard, natural gas futures are up more than 10% since Monday, while the price of a barrel of oil Brent is down about 13% this week
Friday was the first actual day on which the government from Wladimir Putin demanded payment for the gas in Russian currency. According to a decree signed by the Russian president on Thursday, from now on countries classified as hostile – the EU, Britain and the US – wanting to buy gas must comply with this system or their contracts will be suspended for “non-compliance”.
FURTHER INFORMATION Europe pays for Russian gas in euros, but converts it to roubles the Hackers of the world faced at war in Ukraine Russia may suffer a worse recession than that Covid-19 for the sanctions Moscow; stated that the transactions would be carried out GazpromBank the banking subsidiary of the Russian state gas company Gazprom and one of the few banks to have escaped sanctions – because it is one of the main channels for buying crude oil and gas west–. the Customers must open two bank accounts in Russiaone in foreign currency and one in rubles, through which payments to the gas company are made
Gazprom announced on Friday that it has already sent the relevant documents to its main customers, including the main energy companies Germanythe Nordic countries and territories of Central Europe and from the east. The Austrian energy giant OMV was one of the first to initiate the procedures for joining the system, according to a company spokesman
The Announcement of Algeria to Spain Possible revision. Barely 10% of the gas that Spain consumes comes from Russia and it is its main supplier Algeria, which released a notice this Friday about the possibility of a price change. Sonatrach explained that this Friday Algeria has decided to maintain the prices of its supply contracts, which it believes is relatively correct. However, as acknowledged by the CEO of this state-owned company, Tewfiq Hakkar“does not exclude a recalculation of the price of our Spanish customer”
Crude oil prices collapsed after the announcement United States It plans to release 1 million barrels a day from its reserves for six months to ease inflationary pressures. The measure compensates for the attitude of the OPEC+which reiterated on Thursday that it would not increase its oil production representatively in May
In this way, city He says the US appeared to have taken steps to ensure it could deliver the volumes it had promised, even though it had never produced so much oil from reserves. And in addition, Goldman Sachs lowered its price forecasts for this year but raised the estimate for 2023, arguing that the move won’t solve a long-term supply crisis. the According to data from , futures prices are not expected to drop below $100 a barrel until October 2022 Intercontinental Exchange
An economic support
The economy of Russia sank after a month of war UkraineHowever, sales of hydrocarbons bolster the Eurasian country’s accounts. Oil and gas account for about half of China’s exports. Russia and they accounted for about 40% of budget revenue last year, so any rise in the prices of these commodities favors them
In this sense, the agency Bloomberg calculates that Russia could earn around 321,000 million this year thanks to energy exports, a figure more than 30% higher than its earnings in 2021. the However, analysts warn of an energy embargo by the EU and United States would result in a more than 20% drop in Russian production and cost them up to $300 billion in hydrocarbon revenues
The energy pulse remains firm: countries like Germany and Austria They have already drawn up contingency plans in the face of a possible Russian supply disruption. AND Moscow; He indicated on Friday that he would not immediately cut off gas supplies to enemy countries that do not pay in rubles. At least not before the second half of April